Nice info, but for myself in Win7 I use Nagels excellent soundfonts, which beats any midi synths from the 90s

vetz wrote:

Nice info, but for myself in Win7 I use Nagels excellent soundfonts, which beats any midi synths from the 90s

Thanks for the kudos 😀

But, I have to admit, there some things that only an XG compatible synth can do. While I primarily compose with SoundFonts, I'd LOVE to have an MU-50 (the external module version of the DB50XG). For any of my XG compositions I use the S-YXG50 softsynth (which sounds indetical to an MU-50 or a DB50XG), but would much rather have a hardware version 😀

Anyhow, @Kahenraz have a look at this thread for anything that might catch your eye for that daughterboard -> Yamaha S-YXG50 and DB50XG , as well as some goodies that I have for it here -> http://jasonwilliams400com.startlogic.com/sno … eeds/Yamaha_XG/ 😀

rfnagel, do you have any advice on updating standard GM midi files to take advantage of the XG synth?

Also, playing several of the comparison midi files I found through your second link through Microsoft's GM synth and then through the DB50XG.. just.. WOW! No words can accurately describe how much of a profound difference this synth has on this music.

Kahenraz wrote:

rfnagel, do you have any advice on updating standard GM midi files to take advantage of the XG synth?

That's definitely not the easiest thing to do... or rather, there is no real way (or utility) to automatically convert them.

That being said, you might want to check out "XGEdit95", which is a complete XG editor that has the ability to utilize all of the features of most any XG compatible hardware (as well as the S-YXG50 softsynth). You can add any of the XG compatible effects and such to any MIDI file using that utility... but it can be quite time consuming.

It's not the easiest thing in the world to use, but here are some results of several MIDI files that I have previously "XGEdit95-ified" (and recorded from the S-YXG50 softsynth):

D_E1M1_XG.mp3
Goss_Groove_XG.mp3
Grabbag_XG.mp3
Layla_Live_XG.mp3

...and a few of my own compositions:

Black_and_White_Live.mp3
DOOMin_Live.mp3

Kahenraz wrote:

Also, playing several of the comparison midi files I found through your second link through Microsoft's GM synth and then through the DB50XG.. just.. WOW! No words can accurately describe how much of a profound difference this synth has on this music.

Hehe, a darkish cloud of gas passed from one's arse would sound better than the Microsoft Software Synthesizer 🤣!

P.S. If you're interested, a few of my (other) own compositions for you to listen to, recorded using my SBLive and my custom ¥Weeds¥ General MIDI SoundFont v3.0:

Weeds_Untitled_4C.mp3
X-Formers.mp3
X-Formers_2.mp3
Just_A_Little_Bit_Longer.mp3
Lyudmilas_Song.mp3

Oh... and lastly, here is one using my custom SoundFont, along with the BASSMIDI Driver software synthesizer:

Symphony_BM.mp3

...and the MIDI for comparison:

Symphony_BM.mid

I found some Win7 32-bit drivers that'll work for the old Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, which has a DB header. Found a post here:
http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php? … 00359&site_id=1

In case that thread goes away, here they are again. Somebody should download and post them in Vogons for posterity.
http://www.ssstjy.com/drivers/drivers.htm
http://www.ssstjy.com/drivers/turtlebeachdriver.htm
http://www.ssstjy.com/drivers/yamahadriver.htm

🤣 I think I beat you to this a couple of years ago.... I've been rocking this dynex setup for a while now
you do need to do some hacks to change the midi output to external since midi mapper is gone

I'm already familiar with the Dynex setup (hence the thread), but this is for people who like the Santa Cruz more. 😀